killed

Early this morning a lone police officer on patrol shot and killed the man alleged to have assassinated four off-duty police officers as they were working on their laptops in a coffee shop south of Seattle Sunday morning. The Sunday morning slayings rank among the deadliest days in US Law Enforcement history, according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund.

I'm having a hard time accepting what happened on Sunday morning. Four police officers, all of them known for their professional conduct, murdered while working quietly at a coffee shop. They had done nothing to provoke the man to fire at them. In fact, they were so innocent of any provocation that the first two killed never even had a chance to reach for their own firearms. Senseless, senseless violence that leaves a trail of tears and broken families in its wake.

In situations like this, there's not really a whole lot to be said. Words don't really do it for anybody. Sure, we can talk about what could have happened differently, we can talk about how Maurice Clemmons became the dangerous killer he was, we can talk about why Clemmons should never have been let out of jail. But at the heart of the whole thing is something that goes deeper than words. It situations like this, I think the best thing for us to do is to pray for healing and change for the better, to be sad, and to be ready to reach out.